864 history of the committee on s< ience and technology 



"we poor mortals" 



As the moment approached for a vote on Downey's motion to 

 reduce CRBR funding to $33 million, as requested by the President, 

 Flowers, acting as temporary chairman of the full committee 

 soliloquized: 



We poor mortals arc called upon to referee what the experts can't agree upon 

 here. That is the problem. We have to come down on one side or the other. That is 

 exactly what we are going to do now. Call the roll. 



The result was pretty much as anticipated. The Downey motion 

 went down by 19 to 11. Now the center of action turned toward the 

 Senate. 



Led by Senator Frank Church (Democrat of Idaho), the advocates 

 of the CRBR did not do quite as well as had the House and put through 

 an authorization of $75 million. Meanwhile, the Science Committee 

 ran into some trouble with the Appropriations Committee, which 

 was coming in with funding decisions in June before the authorization 

 bills had reached the House. As Flowers put it: 



Mr. Speaker, let me say to my colleagues in the House, "Get your bags packed 

 and hold on to your hats, because you are getting ready for the ride on the Appro- 

 priations choo-choo. It is going to be moving through here fast. Whether or not your 

 authorization bills are ready, it matters not. The Appropriations Committee is ready 

 and they are coming at you full speed ahead " 



Flowers tried without success to stop the Interior Appropriations 

 Subcommittee from jumping the gun, and mustered only 65 votes in 

 trying to block that effort. He had a little better luck with the Public 

 Works Appropriations Subcommittee. This was fortunate because, 

 along with their running fight with President Carter over water 

 projects, the Appropriations Committee had sided with the President in 

 recommending a slash down to $33 million for the CRBR. Flowers 

 argued quite convincingly that the future of nuclear power development 

 should not be decided as a side issue to the "hit list" of water projects 

 the President opposed. "We feel like we're being shunted aside," 

 he observed ruefully when the public works appropriation bill came up. 

 But he convinced his colleagues to delete the CRBR money from the 

 pending bill and wait for a full-dress debate on the CRBR when the 

 Science Committee presented its authorization bill in September. 



NO DOUBT ABOUT McCORMACK's STAND 



Long before the Science Committee started wrestling with the 

 Clinch River issue, Mike McCormack as a member of the Joint Com- 

 mittee on Atomic Energy had been deeply immersed in the details of 

 the CRBR and why it was necessary to proceed with liquid metal fast 

 breeder reactor technology. McCormack had been firmly committed for 



